Spotlight: Noir L. (Putting in Ground Work)

Cory Daniels aka Noir. L

Born in Baltimore, MD on March 17th, Cory Daniels, also known as his stage moniker “Noir.L” knew he was destined for greatness. Growing up in Baltimore was not an easy feat. Being the oldest of 7 siblings with a single mother working, it was easy to fall prey to the enticing dealings of the streets. Luckily there was another way for him to invest a lot of his time; music.

Daniels started rapping when he was around 16 years old. During that time, a lot of his influences were east coast/New York artists. At that time his favorite artists included Cam’Ron and the Dipset crew, freeway, Jay-Z , Biggie and Nas. In high school he would often freestyle with his friends in school hallways during class periods or in the lunch cafeteria. Needless to say that eventually evolved into rap battles between other school peers. He seemed to have a knack for coming up with clever rebuttals or comical metaphors or punch lines on the fly. In his junior year of high school he realized that those random sentences he would nonchalantly jot down in his notepad had potential.

After eventually collaborating on a few songs with some of his older relatives who made hip-hop music, he was ready to branch out on his own. In 2010, he went under then stage name Albion, which was a play on the phrase “Ill be on” because he believed he would eventually make it to the rap game. He released 10 songs under a mix tape called “ground-work”. In 2011 he released his second mixtape titled “The Algorithm”, which received minimal success. It had been downloaded online over 1,000 times independently with no promoting, just from a download link via youtube. His youtube page also received 15,000 views.

For 2 years, Daniels took a hiatus due to some personal issues. When he decided to return to music, he went under a new name; Noir.L. The reason behind the name change was due to the artificial feel of the Albion moniker. Noir is French for black and he decided to go with the “L” because it signified 3 important things he experienced in growing up; Love, Loss and Life.

His new project titled “Road Less Traveled” will release summer of 2014.